November 22, 2016

Contained care: U-M-designed pop-up clinic first of its kind in Jamaica

The 20-by-8-foot facility is part of a Third Century Initiative grant to develop easy-to-use technology to help patients in underserved regions

Container Clinic
Sandy Bay, Jamaica's newest (and only) community ophthalmology clinic is a converted shipping container designed in collaboration between UMMS and the U-M School of Architecture.

It was inside-the-box thinking that led a multidisciplinary University of Michigan team to reimagine a shipping container as an ophthalmology clinic in Jamaica.

Expected to open this month inside a 20-by-8-foot customized shipping container, the new facility is the product of an unlikely collaboration between faculty members at the medical and architecture schools, as well as the University Health Service. The idea was to create a clinic environment that would be uniquely self-contained — something that could be outfitted in the U.S., shipped complete, and unpacked with minimal set-up into a functional health center anywhere in world. This one happens to be in Sandy Bay, a small beachside community on Jamaica’s northwest shore.

The container clinic is part of a larger Third Century Initiative grant project under Professor and Interim Chair of Human Genetics David T. Burke, Ph.D., who is developing easy-to-use technology to help patients in underserved regions monitor chronic conditions without having to travel to a doctor.

To read more about the pop-up clinic, click the below link.